13 July 1866: The Great Eastern steamship [above], the largest vessel afloat at that time, departed Valentia Island Co Kerry for Newfoundland on this day. Its task was to attempt once again to try and lay a working telegraph cable from Europe to the Americas.

‘It was the brainchild of American entrepreneur Cyrus Field, who made two unsuccessful attempts before finally succeeding. The first officer on the Great Eastern - the biggest vessel in the world at the time - was Wicklow native Captain Robert Halpin. While Belfast born scientist and engineer, Lord Kelvin, worked on the technical aspects of the cable. Prior to the laying of the Transatlantic Cable it took approximately two weeks for message from Europe to reach North America … weather permitting as all communications were sent via boat.

The idea of a transatlantic cable was first proposed in 1845, but the distances and depths presented formidable problems. In 1856 the Atlantic Telegraph Company was registered with a capital of £350,000 (then about $1,400,000). On the American side Cyrus W. Field was the driving force; on the British side it was Charles Bright and brothers John and Jacob Brett.

After so many failed attempts, the final, successful, cable was laid with virtually no problems. On 27 July 1866, the cable was pulled ashore at a tiny fishing village in Newfoundland known by the charming name of Heart’s Content. The distance was 1686 nautical miles from Valentia Island. The Great Eastern had averaged 120 miles a day while laying out the cable.

The first message sent on this, finally successful, cable was: “A treaty of peace has been signed between Austria and Prussia”. Queen Victoria, then at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, sent a message to the President of the United States. “The Queen congratulates the President on the successful completion of an undertaking which she hopes may serve as an additional bond of Union between the United States and England.'' *

Almost immediately, the cable opened for business but only the very wealthy could afford it – the initial rates were a startling $1 a letter, payable in gold – at a time that a monthly wage for a labourer might be $20.''

http://www.valentiaisland.ie/explore-valentia/valentia-transatlantic-cable-station/

Launched at the Isle of Dogs, Kent, 31 January 1858, The Great Eastern  was 693 feet in length (over 200 metres) 22,500 tons dead weight and had passenger accommodation for over 3,000 passengers. Five times larger than any other ship then built, she had six masts, five funnels, 6,500 yards of sail, two 58 ft paddle wheels, a 24 ft screw (which remains the biggest ever built) and a coal carrying capacity of 15,000 tons.

The ship’s Captain was Robert Charles Halpin of Co Wicklow who led the successful attempt to repair the line and also layed thousands of miles of vital cables to link together various far flung locations across the Globe. This helped usher in the Age of Telegraphy which enabled men and nations to communicate together at faster levels than ever before.

For the next 100 years Valentia Island was a major portal for the dispatch and reception of messages between the distant continents in what was for its time an Information Superhighway in itself. The station finally ceased being a conduit for transatlantic communication in 1966 when air mail & satellites made it un-economic to maintain it any longer. It was an end of an Era.

* No mention of Ireland!

 

12 July [O.S. 1 July] 1690: The Battle of the Boyne/Cath na Bóinne was fought on this day. The mainly Protestant Army of King William of Orange defeated the mainly Catholic Army of King James II. With around 36,000 Williamites against 25,000 Jacobites this battle, in terms of the numbers of men on the battlefield was the largest clash of arms ever fought in Ireland.

Both kings commanded their armies in person assisted by a number of men of high rank and status. King William had under his orders English, Scottish, Dutch, Danish, French Huguenots and Protestants from Ireland. King James Army mainly consisted of Catholic Irishmen, and a scattering of Englishmen loyal to the Stuarts. The King was also backed by around 6,500 regular French troops sent by King Louis XIV. William sent 10,000 men towards Slane with the advance guard under Count Meinhard, which drew the bulk of the Jacobites upstream in response. With some 1,300 Jacobites posted in downstream in Drogheda, only 6,000 were left at Oldbridge to confront 26,000 Williamites. Duke Frederick Marshal Schomberg (William’s top General) then led the Dutch Blue Guards and other regiments into the waters of the Boyne and across to the other side.

Opposing them were just seven regiments of the Catholics who shot their attackers down in great numbers as they attempted the passage of the Boyne at Oldbridge. A want of sufficient cavalry and artillery to block the crossing of so formidable a host eventually told against the Irishmen. They were pushed back from the riverbank as their enemies gained a toehold and then flowed across. William himself eventually crossed at Drybridge slightly downstream with about 3,500 mounted troops.

Marshal Schomberg brought down to the ford of Ouldbridge the gross of his cavalry, with orders to push on and suffer no check. At this, the seven regiments aforesaid of Irish foot, observing they would be soon overpowered, they cried to their own for horse to sustain them. In the meanwhile, they made a smart fire at the enemies, and laid them in heaps, as they were entering the waters. But their crying for horse was in vain; for they received but one troop, which was as good as nothing.

By the time reinforcements arrived it was too late and the enemy was across in strength. The seven regiments of Irish foot, which guarded the great ford of Ouldbridge, not being supported by horse, were also forced to retreat, but were in danger to be intercepted by such of the enemy as had traversed first the river before they joined their main army, which the duke of Tyrconnell, from the right, perceiving, flew with his regiment of horse to their rescue, as did the duke of Berwick with the two troops of guards, as did colonel Parker with his regiment of horse, and colonel Sutherland with his. It was Tyrconnell's fortune to charge first the blue regiment of foot-guards to the prince of Orange, and he pierced through.

Further upstream Count Meinhard had by then crossed the Boyne by the ford at Rosnaree and though blocked by O’Neills cavalry regiment he was soon reinforced. With King James left flank now turned his position was a precarious one. Most of his army was at this critical moment of the battle betwixt and between these two vital points and unable to render assistance to either in enough strength to turn the days events.

The King himself with a considerable portion of his Irish and French troops did however block Lord Douglas in the Williamite service from crossing the Boyne at Donore - which is situated between the fords of Rosnaree and Oldbridge. But this was a stalemate while the outcome of the battle was decided to the left and the right of the King’s position at Donore.

Eventually as the Williamites got across the river in strength on both the left and right flanks the order was given to fall back on Duleek to the south and stop that village been taken by the enemy. If King Williams’s men had taken the vital bridge there then the whole of the Jacobite army would have been cut off from retreat and in all likelihood captured in its entirety.

As it turned out the retreat was carried out in good order by the Jacobite Army and despite further clashes Lord Tyrconnel, who was given command of the rear-guard, it was able to effect an orderly withdrawal. The enemy were content to follow in their footsteps and not risk a reverse.

However in these follow up operations the Williamites lost their best military leader – Marshal Schomberg.

Twas during these encounters that one master Bryen O'Tool, of the guards, discovering his former acquaintance, marshal Schomberg, near the village of Ouldbridge, resolved to sacrifice his life to the making him away, upon which he, with a few of the guards, and a few of Tyrconnell's horse, made up to him, and O'Tool with his pistol shot the marshal dead. But, soon after, fighting like a lion, he was slain.

King James's army retreated across the river Nanny at Duleek and evaded capture. It had been a ‘close run thing’ and though the battle had been lost the Army was intact and still a cohesive fighting force. 

Bad tactics rather than bad fighting had cost King James and his Irish followers the chance of victory against a more numerous enemy. The line of the Boyne might well have been held but King James had been outmanoeuvred by Marshal Schomberg’s plan - even though this crusty old Huguenot did not live to savour the Victory he had so materially helped to achieve.

Though there was some hot fighting in the course of the battle overall the casualties were light on both sides with perhaps 1,500 soldiers lying dead or wounded along the banks of the Boyne. Considering the strategic consequences of this clash of arms it was a very low number for a battle that determined the political and religious balance of power in Ireland for centuries to come and this clash of arms on the banks of the river Boyne still resonates down to our own day.

 

11‭ July 1921: ‘The Truce’ began at 12 noon on this day. This brought to an end organised military operations between the Irish Republican Army and the British Crown Forces during the Irish War of Independence. The negotiations leading up to the cessation of hostilities had been concluded some days previously at the Mansion House [above] in Dublin between representatives of the Irish President Eamon de Valera and the British Prime Minister Lloyd George. The British CIC in Ireland General Macready assented that his troops would obey what orders they were given from London.

‭On July 8th at the close of discussions at the Mansion House, de Valera telegraphed to to Lloyd George that he was ready to meet and discuss with him ‘on what basis such a conference as that proposed can reasonably hope to achieve the object desired’. Lloyd George telegraphed that he would be happy to see de Valera, and any colleagues he would wish to bring with him, at Downing Street. De Valera replied that he would be in London on the following Thursday, July 14th.

‭General Macready was now invited to the Mansion House ; the general principles governing the Truce was agreed upon and liaison officers were appointed to conduct discussions between the two armies on matters of detail, Robert Barton and Eammon Duggan for the IRA, and truce terms were discussed. ...It was not until 3pm on the 9th that terms were finally agreed to.

The Irish Republic by Dorothy Macardle 

The terms agreed were that no British reinforcements would enter Ireland,‭ raids and arrests would cease and secret operations end. The Irish in turn agreed to cease attacking the British, not to interfere with private or British owned property and not to disturb the peace that would necessitate military interference. Both sides agreed not to engage in provocative displays of their respective forces, armed or unarmed.

The following day an Irish Delegation consisting of Eamon de Valera,‭ Arthur Griffith, Austin Stack and Robert Barton departed for London to open negotiations with the British Government. The Lord Mayor of Dublin ‬Laurence O'Neill,‭ Count Plunkett and Erskine Childers also accompanied the delegation. It looked like the violence that had wracked Ireland for the last two and a half years was coming to an end.

‭Notwithstanding that it was the last days of the War of Independence there were still quite a number of violent incidents that led to the deaths of at some 60 individuals as the hours counted down to the  ceasefire including 10 who died violently on the day of the Truce itself. ‬But while an uneasy Peace settled down upon most of the Country it was a different story in the North, particularly in the city of Belfast. It had always been a volatile place in July – owing to the parades of the Orange Order on 12th July – but this was violence intensified and militarised on a scale not seen before. There sectarian clashes resulted in an orgy of murders, burnings and intimidation with the Police & Military openly taking sides against the Nationalist population.

10 July 1927: The Assassination of Kevin O’Higgins, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Minister for Justice and Minister for External Affairs on this day.

His role in the Irish Civil War had still not been forgotten or forgiven by many Republicans. He had taken the side of those supporting the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which included an Oath of Fidelity to the British King. While a brilliant Minister and a shrewd politician he was also a man of ruthless determination. His decision to acquiesce in the execution of the best man at his own wedding, Rory O’Conner, was seen as a particularly hard act. He was viewed by quite a number of people as the most forceful personality in the Cumann na nGaedheal government. As a result of this legacy of bitterness plans were laid by a small group of Republicans to carry out an attempt on his life.

On the fateful Sunday in question O’Higgins left his house, (situated in south County Dublin) accompanied only by his bodyguard Detective O’Grady. His intention was to attend Mass at the local Catholic church on Booterstown Avenue. The Minister clearly forgot something along the way and he sent O’Grady back to fetch it, whatever it was. He then proceeded on alone down Cross Avenue to its junction with that of Booterstown. It was here that the assassins struck. A number of them approached him and opened fire simultaneously. Shot a number of times O’ Higgins started to run slowly across Booterstown Avenue only to collapse at the gates of a private residence, Sans Souci.

The gunmen thought they had mortally wounded him but then O’Higgins inadvertently committed a fatal error. He raised his hand, possibly to call attention to his plight. His assailants at once returned and pumped him full of more bullets before fleeing in a car up the avenue and off down the Stillorgan road in the direction of the nearby countryside.

 Within minutes people were rushing to his aid. Amazingly one of them was an ex Cabinet colleague, Professor O’Neill who had been making his way to Mass at the same time. O’Higgins was brought back to his home and made as comfortable as possible in the dining room. While conscious, he was in great pain as he had sustained a considerable number of gunshot wounds, the one to the skull proving to be the fatal shot. He was bleeding profusely by this stage and O’Higgins realised that his situation was hopeless. His dignity in the face of death drew the admiration of all who were with him in his final hours. Quite a number of people called in to pay their last farewells before the end. O’Higgins died at 4.45 that afternoon.

Most people were shocked by the news. The action was universally condemned. Even Eamon De Valera was taken aback by the brutal death of his political opponent and he swiftly moved to disassociate both himself and his party from this violent and gratuitous deed. However it is true to say that not all of his supporters were that upset by O’Higgins death.

The following day O’Higgins body was removed from his home. President Cosgrave and the members of his Cabinet, along with General O’Duffy and nine senior officers of the Garda Síochána were in attendance to accompany the Minister’s remains to a lying in state at the Mansion House, Dublin. Huge crowds queued for hours to pay their final respects.

His remains were removed from his residence, Dunamase House, Booterstown, to the Mansion House, Dublin, where thousands filed past the coffin. His funeral mass was held at St Andrew’s Church, Westland row. The funeral cortège stretched for over 3 miles. O’Higgins was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, the same grave as his infant son.

For years his assassins were unknown to the general Public. However it is now known that they were three IRA members acting off their own bat. They did it in order to avenge the loss of their comrades in the Civil War, in which O'Higgins played such a prominent role in the execution of Republican prisoners and the introduction of draconian legislation to deal with the Anti Treaty IRA. They were Timothy Coughlan, Bill Gannon and Archie Doyle. None of them were ever charged with what they did that fateful day.

* The plaque above was erected near the spot where he was gunned down in 2012 by then An Taoiseach Enda Kenny

 

 

10 July 1921 - Belfast’s Bloody Sunday & the deadliest day in the War of Independence.

Sunday the 10th July 1921was a day of hope & prayer throughout Ireland following the announcement that a Truce between the IRA & the Crown Forces was due to come into effect the following day [Monday] at 12 noon sharp. It was hoped that the terrible & bloody events of the last two years would finally come to an end and Ireland would return to a peaceful state.

However in the City of Belfast there was tension in the air as the annual 12th July parades approached that was exacerbated by continuing armed clashes between the IRA & their opponents. The announcement of the Truce came as a shock to many supporters of the Crown that the IRA was in effect recognised as a legitimate Army. Many felt betrayed and that the rug was being pulled from under them. 

On the Saturday night a patrol of the RIC had been attacked in Raglan St. as they attempted to raid a Nationalist area & a Constable had been shot dead with many more wounded. This incensed the ultra loyalist Ulster Special Constabulary in particular to engage in an orgy of violence in nationalist areas in the city that were supported by Orange mobs going on the rampage in a kind of symbiotic meeting of minds. The Catholics struck back  & they inflicted casualties on both the innocent & guilty alike in turn. Over a thousand  people had to flee their homes [the vast majority Catholics] and some 160 dwellings were left gutted [again the vast majority Catholic occupied]. By the time things quietened down on the afternoon of the 11th there were twenty one  people dead thus giving it the dubious honour of being the bloodiest bout of sectarian violence in the City’s long and bloody history.  

Meanwhile violence continued else where in Ireland and while contrary to myth there was no concerted effort to kill supporters of the British Crown whether military, police or spies because a Truce was in the offing there were a number of incidents some of which proved to be quite controversial. Perhaps the most notorious one being the shooting dead of four British soldiers just outside Cork City by local volunteers at a place called  Ellis’ Quarry. They had been captured in Mufti while out on a walk and apparently oblivious that they were still in danger until the Truce actually began the next day. Their foolhardiness cost them their lives and they were executed as enemy combatants. The night before an IRA volunteer had been taken from his bed in the City and found shot by a wayside, so presumably this action was a revenge operation by some at least in the Cork Brigade.

There were numerous violent incidents elsewhere in the Country that day with the most serious armed clash between the IRA & the British Army taking place at Castleisland Co Kerry. It had been decided by Kerry No 2 Brigade that they would ambush a curfew patrol drawn from the North Lancashire Regiment in the town. This went awry when a shot was discharged prematurely and in the ensuing gunfight 3 members of the IRA and four British soldiers were shot dead right on the eve of the Truce. In all some 34 people died violently throughout Ireland that day making it the deadliest 24 hours in the Irish War of Independence.

 

9‭ July 1911: King George V and Queen Mary visited the Catholic Seminary of Maynooth on this day. The British king was on a brief tour of Ireland to mark his accession to the throne. He spent four days in and around Dublin on a royal visit to the city. The King and the royal party, led by the 8th Royal Hussars on horseback, had travelled from the harbour in Kingstown/ Dún Laoghaire to Dublin Castle, as thousands lined the streets to view his procession. Here the King and Queen based themselves in what was a very secure base  and circulated from there to the various locations in a meticulously  planned series of events designed to enhance Royal Power in the wake of George V’s Coronation.

It was decided that a visit to the educational centre of Catholic Ireland would help to balance any attempt of the Orange Order to make his stay here the preserve of any one side.‭ The King was accompanied by his formidable wife Queen Mary who was bedecked in a stunning white dress with a matching hat of feathers. Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and Dr Daniel Mannix the President of the College, greeted the Royal couple on arrival. Other senior members of the Catholic Hierarchy were also in attendance. The visit was the highlight of the King’s stay in Ireland. 

However King George’s visit by no means met with everyone’s approval.‭ Even someone as socially conservative as William Martin Murphy turned down the offer of a Knighthood from the King. Dublin Corporation would not issue an address welcoming him to the City of Dublin. James Connolly warned people to stay away and issued a stern rebuttal of the majesty of kings and this one in particular:

 Murder,‭ treachery, adultery, incest, theft, perjury – every crime known to man has been committed by some one or other of the race of monarchs from whom King George is proud to trace his descent. '‬His blood has crept through scoundrels since the flood.‭'‬ 

Ours be the task to enlighten the ignorant among our class,‭ to dissipate and destroy the political and social superstitions of the enslaved masses and to hasten the coming day when, in the words of Joseph Brenan, the fearless patriot of '48, all the world will maintain:

‭'The Right Divine of Labour

To be first of earthly things‭;

That the Thinker and the Worker

Are Manhood's only Kings.‭'‬ 

King George though seems to have enjoyed his stay.‭ ‬On 12 July from Dublin Castle he issued a 'Letter of Thanks' for the reception he, his wife and his children had received. It ended with the following passage:

Looking forward,‭ ‬as we do, to coming amongst our Irish people again, and at no distant date, and repeating in other parts of the Country the delightful experience of the last few days, we can now only say that our best wishes will ever be for the increased prosperity of your ancient capital, and for the contentment and happiness of our Irish People.

King George though was to be somewhat disappointed - as he never again set foot in the Fair City. It was to be 100 years before another British Monarch did so.

 

8 July 1981: The death of Joe McDonnell on Hunger Strike on this day. He died after 61 days without food. He was the fifth Republican prisoner to die that year in the ongoing campaign to gain Special Status for political prisoners.

Joe McDonnell was born in Belfast in 1950. He married his wife Goretti in 1970 and they had two children together. When the conflict erupted in the North Joe took sides and ended up in the IRA. He had joined up soon after the introduction of internment without trial in August 1971. He was himself interned on the prison ship Maidstone in 1972 and in Long Kesh from 1973 to 1974. He was captured in 1976 when the car he was in was stopped by the RUC and he and three other men (one of whom was Bobby Sands) were given long terms of imprisonment for a gun being found in the car. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

McDonnell and many of the other Republican prisoners did not accept that they were criminals for fighting against the British Crown - something Irishmen had been doing for centuries. But in 1976 the British Government had abolished Special Category Status for political prisoners. From then on it could only be a matter of time till things escalated. By the Summer of 1981 a Hunger Strike was under way and a number of prisoners had died and others were in danger of dying.

Following the success of Bobby Sands being elected for Fermanagh South Tyrone prior to his death on 5 May it was decided by the Anti H Block campaign to contest the General Election in the 26 Counties that fell on 11 June that year. McDonnell was selected to contest the Constituency of Sligo-Leitrim. Veteran local republican John Joe McGirl was his election agent and Joe’s wife Goretti was conspicuous in her presence to help get him elected there. On the day of the election he received 5,639 1st preference votes - narrowingly missing being elected by a small margin.

When Joe McDonnell died on 8 July 1981 tensions were at razor point in the North. From Wednesday evening through to the Friday morning, Joe’s body had lain in state in the family home. During this time, thousands of people filed past the coffin to pay their respects to the fallen Volunteer. When his funeral was held in Belfast some days later thousands of people followed the cortege on it way to Milltown Cemetery. Along the way the mourners were under close observation by the British Military. The British Army and RUC opened up on the cortege with a hail of plastic bullets amidst scenes of pandemonium and panic. The head of the funeral cortege had moved off a few minutes before the attack and was making its way towards Milltown. Six IRA Volunteers took the coffin on their shoulders for the last leg of the journey to the Republican Plot. When they spotted an IRA Guard of Honour returning to a house after firing the final shots they swooped.

Today next to Bobby Sands he is one of the best known of the Hungers Strikers of 1981. He is the subject of a famous Republican Ballad written by Brian Warfield of The Wolfe Tones. It begins:

Oh my name is Joe McDonnell 

From Belfast town I came 

That city I will never see again...